When Words Collide: Nhl Addresses Bigotry

Allegations Of Racial Slurs Prompt League Into Action

The National Hockey League playoffs are a scintillating time, rife with intensity and showcasing the supreme effort and skill necessary to differentiate winners from losers.

No such distinction exists in racism. Everybody loses--perpetrator, victim and, perhaps most damaging, society as a whole.

The two worlds collided last week when Philadelphia's Sandy McCarthy, whose father is African-American and whose mother is Canadian of Caucasian and Native American heritage, accused Toronto's Tie Domi of using a racial slur in Game 3 of their teams' Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Domi, a Caucasian native of Canada, steadfastly denied the charge.

The league moved quickly to investigate and cleared Domi after failing to find anyone to substantiate McCarthy's claim.

The matter comes in the wake of five other racial incidents--three of which resulted in suspensions--and at a time when the league is attempting to make inroads for minorities.

McCarthy, coincidentally, and Darcy Tucker were cleared of insulting Worrell during a preseason game last October. A month later, then-Flyer Chris Gratton was accused of slurring Worrell, but the Panthers did not ask the league to investigate.

Finally, San Jose Sharks defenseman Bryan Marchment admitted calling Vancouver's Donald Brashear "a monkey" just last month but insisted its racial implications only became clear to him afterward. NHL Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell suspended Marchment for one game.

The suspensions were a strong example of the league's "zero tolerance" policy regarding racial slurs. These slurs, of course, aren't limited to African-Americans.

Walk into any NHL dressing room and there's a good chance more than one language is being spoken. Eighteen countries are represented on NHL rosters, making it the most diverse of the four major sports and a virtual melting pot of cultures.

"People are always picking on your heritage," Flyers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck said. "You're the Russian or the Czech or you're the Big Indian or Chief. We're living in a stereotypical world, where nicknames come before names, and that sometimes leads to other things."

The delicate distinction is that between trash-talking and racially offensive remarks. In the sanctity of the dressing room, a slang word for a nationality could be accepted as a form of motivation or as part of a relatively harmless hazing process that goes on among teammates.

On the ice and between opponents, it most definitely crosses a line.

Still, Blackhawks General Manager Bob Murray says such tactics have long been part of the game. Wars of words between French and English Canadians went on long before hockey went global.

"It's always been there," Murray said. "If a player was on your team, people might say something to get him going. If he was on the other team, people might do it to knock him off his game."

Race is a much lesser issue in Canada, which doesn't have the United States' history of discrimination toward people of color. But the flip side of this can be ignorance: Many white Canadians are not exposed to blacks as they grow up playing the game and might use a racial slur as just another putdown, derogatory remark or act of gamesmanship.

"It's the classic line of sociological thought called subconscious racism," said Kenneth Shropshire, a professor at The Wharton School/University of Pennsylvania who has written a book on race and sports. "People may not try to be racist, but they see another group coming into their territory and react instinctively."

Said Berube: "We're playing a sport where there are nuts out there sometimes. They're losing their minds, they're saying things. I say things. Everybody says stuff and does stuff they shouldn't do. You don't want to do it, but at the time you're not thinking like that."

Exactly the reason Washington General Manager George McPhee organized a sensitivity training seminar for his players in the aftermath of Simon's and Berube's suspensions. That Berube didn't find his comments offensive revealed the need for education, McPhee said.

Racial incidents in sports are not limited to hockey, of course, but they tend to stand out because of the paucity of minorities in the sport.

The NHL is taking proactive steps to address the issue, a goal Commissioner Gary Bettman stressed during All-Star weekend: "It's critical we continue to pursue minority growth within our fan base and within the rosters of our teams," he said.